Here’s a picture from my recent trip, which really captures the wildness of the Central Otago wine region. It’s an aerial view of a winery in the Central Otago region. I think it’s in the Gibbston district (and suspect it may be Chard Farm). Can anyone help with a positive identification? Wish I was still [...]

I’m a real fan of Grüner Veltliner, one of my favourite white grape varieties. This is a good, affordable example that I bought (yes, shock, horror, wine writer actually buys a wine) from Waitrose on Saturday. Money well spent, I reckon – one that I would buy again.

One of the nice things about this new blog format is that it puts an end to the negative anonymous comments that ruined the atmosphere a bit on my older blog. Now all comments have to be approved, and the ip numbers of commentors are recorded.

Popped into Asda today and scanned their wine range. Surprised to see this wine at £4. It’s a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc from Southbank Estate. From the back label: ‘Marlborough, sitting at the north-eastern point of the South Island, is New Zealand’s home of vivid Sauvignon Blanc, our world-renowned white wine.’

This is a really lovely northern Rhône Syrah, made by Maxime Graillot, son of Alan (the most famous grower in this appellation of Crozes-Hermitage). It’s quite an edgy, polarising sort of wine, though: with its high acidity and bold, striking flavours, some will fall in love while others will find it a bit too much.

Here I take a look at New Zealand Syrah, tasting two top-notch examples on camera. Will it be the next big thing from Kiwiland? Too soon to say, with less than 300 hectares of Syrah planted in the whole country. But I’m a big fan – I’m excited by the wines that I’ve tried so [...]

Just on my way back from Sarah Ahmed’s 50 Great Portuguese Wines tasting. Having done this job last year, I know how difficult it is to narrow down this selection to just 50: Portugal must be the most underrated wine-producing country on the planet. Sarah is pictured right, with one of her favourite whites.

This is the third set of clothes for my blog. The previous blog, which was on a blogger platform, can still be found at www.wineanorak.com/blog, and contains all the posts from January 2006 until February 2010.